Joseph Wilde-Ramsing’s Post

🚨 Breaking news! 🚨 ⚖️ SOMO and our partners are taking the Dutch government to court for failing to uphold international law and prevent genocide in Gaza 👇Details below!

Hi folks! If you or any of your colleagues or partners speak Spanish or Portuguese and would like to learn more about SOMO's new pro bono corporate research helpdesk, The Counter, please join our bilengual webinar on Thursday, October 17th. Details below! 👇

💡 This post, and the blog by Payal Sampat and Jan Morrill, is a worth a read. 👎 The way International Council on Mining and Metals CEO Rohitesh Dhawan lashed out at Indigenous rights and civil society organizations who decided that his presence - representative of major mining multinationals that have inflicted and continue to inflict untold harm on Indigenous communities around the world - on a panel about Indigenous rights in the energy transition was not appropriate at this time, was shameful, incredibly colonialist, and exemplary of the ICMM's approach. Rather than choosing to come to the panel and respectfully listen to what Indigenous representatives had to say, the ICMM demands space and attention, taking up all the oxygen it can, and chooses to vilify anyone who doesn't appreciate this approach, including the very Indigenous People's on whose land and backs the global mining industry makes its billions in profits every year. If you ask me, the only way forward for the mining industry is to disband groups like ICMM and start over from scratch, this time with respect for Indigenous Peoples, their land, and their collective rights.

🤔 Does the carbon offsetting industry actually reduce global greenhouse gas emissions? 🚫 No! My brilliant SOMO colleague Joanna Cabello busts this myth in this short video. 💡 Check it out! 👇

🙌 Big legal win in the Netherlands! ⚖️ 🚢 Dutch climate groups including Fossielvrij NL and lawyers at Advocates for the Future won their greenwashing case against cruise company MSC Cruises at the Dutch advertising watchdog. The regulator ruled that MSC Cruises misled consumers in their advertising, in which it egregiously claimed to "#SavetheSea" with its cruises 🤣 🤣

❓ It's a question that pops up frequently in global supply chains - How should a company respond to labour abuse at a supplier's suppliers, even if the abuse has not (yet) found its way into the company's products? 🤔 💡 SOMO and our partners Transparentem and Business & Human Rights Resource Centre looked into this! ✔️ Internationally-accepted standards of due diligence require global brands to take action in response to serious abuses across supply chain tiers, even if material from the supplier’s supplier has not (yet) entered the brand’s products. 😮 In settings where abuse is endemic, a brand’s refusal to take action just because no direct link between the abuse and the brand’s products has (yet) been found risks weakening the collective action needed to address systemic issues. 🚢 This type of head-in-the-sand behaviour allows abuses to persist industry-wide, all boats sinking together rather than rising. 💡 For more reasons why action is essential in these situations and suggestions for how companies can go about doing so, check out my new blog - out today! - co-authored with the brilliant Karen Stauss, Áine Clarke, and Lennon Ying-Da Wang! 🤩 https://lnkd.in/dwqxJQdU

🤩 Great turnout - standing room only! - for our second event at #NYClimateWeek - a panel discussion on how to address the human & environmental costs of mining for #electricvehicles 🌎 💡 Krista Shennum of Climate Rights International kicked off the discussion with a moving video showing the environmental and human rights impacts of #nickel in Indonesia. 💡 Clemente Flores, a representative of 33 Indigenous communities in the water-scarce Salinas Grandes region of Argentina, explained that his home and livelihood is being gravely threatened by the mining of #lithium, which requires over 2 million liters of water to produce 1 ton of lithium. 😮 💡 Galina Angarova of SIRGE Coalition highlighted the disproportionate harm that the mining of transition minerals is causing on Indigenous communities around the world, and talked about how many of these minerals are being used to make weapons and other military technology in addition to electric vehicles. 💡 Payal Sampat of EARTHWORKS noted that while we must urgently address the climate crisis, "we cannot simply mine our way out of the climate crisis!" It must be done in an equitable manner that respects the right of Indigenous Peoples to free, prior, and informed consent. There must be no "sacrifice zones". 💡 And my SOMO colleague Alejandro Gonzalez brought the discussion home, using powerful data and clear visualizations to highlight how unsustainable consumption in the Global North is at the root of the problem and thus how demand reduction in the North must be part of the solution. ‼️Clean energy cannot be built on dirty mining! ⛔ 🙌 Thanks Climate Rights International, SIRGE Coalition, EARTHWORKS, and Lead The Charge for the great collaboration in organizing this important discussion!

🌎 At our first event at #NYClimateWeek, SOMO organized an intimate, energetic roundtable discussion on equity in global mineral supply chains and how to address trade barriers for a #justtransition. 💡 Mutuso Dhliwayo of Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association called for a reform of the neocolonial global trade and investment architecture that allows powerful corporations and rich Global North countries to exploit the Global South's mineral wealth. 💡 Ketakandriana Rafitoson, PhD of Publish What You Pay drew lessons from their new report on how Africa can make the most of its transition minerals and emphasised that value addition must go hand in hand with strenghtening accountability of the whole transition mineral value chain. 💡 And my colleague Alejandro Gonzalez discussed how the EU's trade policy on raw materials is deepening the environmental and inequality crises (drawing on SOMO's recent report: https://lnkd.in/dVmwzswN) and highlighted the need to reduce demand for raw materials in the Global North. 👏 Many thanks to Emily Iona Stewart of Global Witness for chairing and Joe Bardwell and Anna Short for the great collaboration in organizing! And thanks to Patrick Hinton for the great photos!

💡 There IS enough money out there for a just energy transition! The problem is that much-needed finance for innovation, research, and development to transition is being sucked out of companies and given to already ultra-rich shareholders through practices like share buybacks. 📣 On this excellent edition of Frank Bold's #FranklySpeaking podcast, the ever-astute Richard Howitt discusses with my SOMO colleague Myriam Vander Stichele how this widespread corporate financial practice is draining billions and blocking a #justtransition. 🌎 Global leaders and climate activists gathering in New York for the #SummitOfTheFuture this week and seeking to find solutions to fill the massive #climatefinance need, look no further!

🌎 SOMO will be at #NYCClimateWeek 2024! If you're in town, please join my colleague Alejandro Gonzalez and myself for these two exciting events we are (co)organizing with partners. Details in the swipey graphic and 👇! 💡 Event 1: Roundtable Discussion on Equity and Responsible Resource Use in Global Mineral Supply Chains 🗓️ Monday, September 23rd, 3:15 PM 📍 White Space Chelsea, 530 W 25th St 🤝 with: Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, Publish What You Pay 🍻 Followed by a reception in collaboration with Global Witness 👉 Register: https://lnkd.in/dXgfnzFm 💡 Event 2: Addressing the Human & Environmental Costs of Mining for EVs 🗓️ Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2pm EDT 📍 The Peoples’ Forum, 320 W. 37th St, New York, NY 🤝 SIRGE Coalition, Climate Rights International, EARTHWORKS, Lead The Charge 👉 Register: https://lnkd.in/e7JnwaB3 🙌 Look forward to seeing you there! Joe Bardwell Ketakandriana Rafitoson, PhD Mutuso Dhliwayo Mutuso Dhliwayo Galina Angarova Payal Sampat Clemente Flores Krista Shennum Emily Iona Stewart Anna Short